Thursday, March 6, 2008

hamilton streetcar - `69 - DOT records




ok , i finally got the "hamilton streetcar" LP sounding nice. so here ya go. this one is out there.
lots of strings , harmonies , great songwriting & trippy interludes.
this one will create many ear worms.
anjoy !

aka

[ badcat records ]
We've listened to this set at least twenty times and can't decide whether it's a great slice of late-'60s psych, or an over-hyped piece of MOR sludge ... Sound like a strange contradiction? It is.

The Los Angeles-based Hamilton Streetcar were apparently a studio project built around the talents of ex-Appletree Theater mastermind/vocalist John Boylan, singer/guitarist Buzz Clifford (who'd enjoyed an early '60s hit with "Baby Sittin' Boogie") and Ralph Plummer. The trio somehow attracted the attention of the eccentric Lee Hazlewood who promptly signed them to his newly established LHI label. Debuting with 1968's "Invisible People" b/w "Flash" (LHI catalog 17016), the group managed one follow-up single ("Confusion" b/w "Your Own Comedown" (LHI catalog 1206), before switching to Dot Records.

1969's "hamilton streetcar" found the group working with producer Richard Delvy. Structurally the set was odd, largely forsaking conventional three minute song structures in favor of a pair of side long, multi-part suites that frequently interweaved main themes with shorter refrains (examples included "Streetcar" and a cover of Tim Buckley's "Pleasant Street"). Heavily orchestrated, tracks such as "Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Have Wings and Fly)" and the instrumental "Entre Acte" sounded a bit like Curt Boetcher and Gary Usher's work with Sagittarius. Elsewhere, tracks such as "Brother Speed", "Welcome into Your World" and "" were far less pop oriented, featuring a distinctive rock/psych sound. Definitely different, the set grows on you each time around. It's one of our favorite recent discoveries.
[ed. note : ours too ! - ]


hamilton streetcar - `69 - DOT records
MP3 @ 320 kbps - "all trax from wax"
*includes high rez cover scans*
transferred by akashaman - 2008

"Hamilton Streetcar" track listing:
1.) Overture - 3:18
2.) Streetcar (Lee Michaels) - :37
3.) Where Do I Go - :24
4.) Brother Speed (John Boylan) - :21
5.) I See I Am (Buzz Clifford) - :40
6.) Welcome into Your World - :15
7.) Now I Taste the Tears - :25
8.) Streetcar - :17
9.) Streetcar - 2:28
10.) Brother Speed - 2:58
11.) I See I Am - 4:45
12.) Where Do I Go - 3:33
13.) Now I Taste the Tears - 2:35
14.) Welcome into Your World - 2:15
15.) Entre Acte (instrumental) - 3:58
16.) Silver Wings (instrumental) - :33
17.) Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Have Wings and Fly). - :32
18.) Pleasant Street (Tim Buckley) - :35
19.) Honey and Wine - :32
20.) Wasn't It You? - 1:12
21.) Silver Wings - :34
22.) Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Have Wings and Fly) - 3:25
23.) Silver Wings - 4:33
24.) Honey and Wine - 3:23
25.) Pleasant Street - 4:28
26.) Wasn't It You? - 3:17

download : -- here --



15 comments:

Anonymous said...

great, I've been wanting to hear this one for a while since I'm a big fan of APPLETREE THEATRE [a.k.a. brothers John and Terence Boylan] and this was John Boylan's next project after that record.

ge said...

glad to see an increase in some nodoubt tasty Akashaction--a listen or 2 only reminds a bit of YAYS & NAYS, the tongue-in-macho cheekiness; some real growers have a squarish or not-sure-how-to-approach angle imo: i think of G Alexander, Jackie & Roy, Tony Clifton etc

Timmy said...

Without the annoying overtly macho vocals, obviously meant to impress Blood Sweat & Tears groopies, There isn't much here. Well, except irritating musical meanderings, lost in the vaste wastelands of nondescript polluted copy-cat-ness. This LP left me cold. And sick. The ONLY reason to care is the label: Dot.

Anonymous said...

Hi Akashaman, the server http://www.filesend.net/ is not functional. I would like to get only artworks (front+back) of Hamilton Streetcar in a larger resolution because i have this one on CDR without covers. Can you put artworks on rapidshare.com? Thanks. Freak

Anonymous said...

thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the up! Interesting listen so far.

John Cook said...

I've owned copies of Hamilton Streetcar since it was released in 1969 and have never stopped enjoying listening to it. Recently, I copied one to CD, now it's portable!

Rainbow Demon said...

Thanks Aka...
I have lots of vinyl lying around. Let me know if you have any wants. I may have something.

Peace,
=RD=

ps... I loved hearing the Hook again. Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

if anyone would like to buy the vinyl of this then don't hesitate to contact me somenicesssh@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Thanks much for this album Akashaman. I have been looking for it for a long while now and thanks to you i can finally enjoy it on my iPod :)

Anonymous said...

This looks interesting-looking forward to listening to this tomorrow.
Nice site dude.
Cheers,John.

Unknown said...

Check out the Hamilton Streetcar MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/hamiltonstreetcar
It currently has the original LHI 45's, remastered for digital, up for listening, some group history and current information. We think you'll like it. ...J for Ralph, Ian, Michael, Tom and Greg...Hamilton Streetcar

jack said...

Is this version of 'I See I Am' identical to the one on the Buzz Clifford LP 'See Your Way Clear'?

akashaman said...

found another really clean copy of this vinyl at half priced ! very cool

Tamfang said...

? The zipfile has only half the tracks listed here, and not in the same order.